Marci R. McMahon, Ph.D.

In my literature courses, I guide students to explore the concept of positionality that is, how their life experiences and characteristics, compared with those of others, shape their perspectives on and their actions in the world. In doing so, I hope to deepen my students' capacities for critical self-reflection, while also expand their abilities to bridge the theoretical and historical with the personal and the political. In order to achieve these aims within the literature classroom, I balance a traditional close reading approach to narrative with lessons and assignments that connect our literature to pertinent social issues of the day.